انرژی و اقتصاد

Renowned for their secrecy and bland public pronouncements, Saudi Arabia's leaders almost never make news. But, when the kingdom's number-two man, Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, visited Washington last month, he dropped a bombshell. Meeting with executives from seven major U.S. oil companies, Abdullah shocked them by asking for

Introduction Muhammad Khatami's surprise victory in the May 23, 1997, Iranian presidential election generated much enthusiasm at home and much interest abroad. For Iranians, the massive popular mandate -- Khatami received 70 percent of the vote with a nearly 90 percent turnout -- showed their disillusionment with the ruling establishment

This is the first in a two-part series on the topic "U.S. Aid to Egypt: Building a Partnership for the 21st Century." Read Part II. For the first time in nearly twenty years, the United States will soon revamp foreign aid to Israel and Egypt. Given the centrality of these

Testimony before the House Committee on International Relations The U.S. sanctions on Iran have imposed costs on the U.S. economy, but those have been small compared to the benefits. When the sanctions were adopted, the weight of expert opinion was that they would have little effect on Iran. The Financial

The United States played an important supporting role in the quiet drama of re-building Jordan-Israel ties by holding an official signing ceremony two weeks ago to recognize the Al Hassan Industrial Zone in Irbid, Jordan as a "Qualifying Industrial Zone" (QIZ). The QIZ agreement, first signed at the Doha conference

What Is MENABANK? The idea for a regional development bank in the Middle East has been around for years. However, practical work for creation of a bank only began when the four core peace process parties—Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, and Egypt—jointly proposed the creation of the Bank in 1995

While Kofi Annan's diplomacy has received headlines, another Security Council action last week-approval of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1153 on February 20-was subject to remarkably little scrutiny. This resolution, designed to expand the existing oil-for-food program with Iraq, was intended to blunt criticism from Arab and others as

In the Middle East, money talks -- but not as loudly as politics. That's the lesson to be learned from the Middle East/North Africa economic summit, which concluded late last month in Doha, Qatar, under the shadow of the Iraq crisis. For Washington, the two events are connected, with the

With the world focused on the UN-Iraqi standoff, the fourth annual Middle East/North Africa (MENA) Economic Conference concluded quietly in Qatar earlier this week. As Arab world heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia officially boycotted the proceedings, the MENA summit ended on an ambivalent note: Though viewed as a general success